The Housing Executive

The reduction in funding for the Private Sector Grants Scheme meant we have been unable to accept any new discretionary grant enquiries for tackling disrepair and unfitness in private sector housing since May 2009. Mandatory Disabled Facility Grants and Repair Grants, along with all other grant applications which had been approved prior to May 2009, continued as normal and payments were made when work was completed.

However Discretionary Renovation, Replacement and Home Repair Assistance Grants could only be approved in exceptional circumstances.

Additional finance became available in early 2010 which allowed us to process cases for Discretionary Grants where a full statutory application had been made and to process enquiries from property owners within Town Centre Living Initiative areas. We were able to approve 889 Mandatory Repairs Grants, and 1,071 Discretionary Grants, bringing the total number of approvals to 1,960 compared to 1,296 grants in 2009/10 and 4,577 in 2008/09.